No matter what the design or layout, the phrase “private tropical garden” really does seem like it’s asking a lot out of the foggy climate of the Outer Richmond. Be that as it may, this one-bed, one-bath, 500-square-foot apartment on Clement includes access to a rather fetching backyard garden space regardless of ambient temperature, with the ad also pitching “gorgeous granite,” “brick patio,” partial furnishing, and a recent remodel. It’s $3,300/month, “some pets allowed.” Read more

Some San Francisco neighborhoods still have the same names they were bestowed when the city was founded in 1776, while others have nicknames slapped onto them by real estate agents just a couple years ago. To understand why San Francisco neighborhoods have the names they have, we must first understand that San Francisco wasn’t always San Francisco — it was a Spanish port after Spain colonized the area from the Ohlone people (1769), then became a Mexican city named Yerba Buena when Mexico declared independence from Spain (1821), and then San Francisco when the US claimed California in the Mexican-American War (1846). Read More

By Joe Kukura/Thrillist published in December 2016.

Posted inUncategorized|Comments Off on How San Francisco’s Neighborhoods got their Names

Locating the city’s best neighborhood all depends on your priorities. We’ve pored over the numbers and done the homework for you, whether you’re a foodie or a family person, looking for a real-estate deal or just a piece of the sun. Now all you’ve got to do is decide which San Francisco you want most.

Best For Families: OUTER SUNSET
The farther south and west you go, the more kids the city has. But when you look at the percentage of homes with kids combined with proximity to good schools, the Outer Sunset wins, hands down. Thirty percent of its households have children, and of 20 schools with a “9” or “10” rating on greatschools.org (which rates both public and private schools), fully half of them are in the Outer Sunset (with two more nearby in the Inner Sunset). The Outer Sunset’s also got its fair share of playgrounds, parks and, of course, the ocean and the zoo.

The two-bedroom Noe Valley house had an unorthodox layout and looked like a 1980s Tahoe cabin.

Taking those flaws into consideration, Realtor Bernard Katzmann listed it for $1.1 million at the inauspicious sales time of Thanksgiving. Then he watched in amazement as 22 offers came in – many for all cash – and it ended up selling for $1.54 million.

“Lots of tech companies were represented” among the bidders, he said. “I heard that many buyers want to get in now before Facebook goes public (and spawns scores of new millionaires), which is pushing demand.”

In a still-moribund real estate market, Noe Valley stands out as a neighborhood buoyed by positive fiscal forces.

All the money flowing into tech firms, and all the tech jobs being created in Silicon Valley and San Francisco, have been a boon for Noe Valley because of its fortuitous location for Peninsula, South Bay and downtown commutes, along with its walkable, small-town feel, family-friendly vibe (it’s called “stroller valley”), and charming, albeit pricey, Victorians.

“It’s like a little village within the city,” said Sally Smith, co-publisher and editor of the Noe Valley Voice, the monthly neighborhood newspaper. “It has that community feeling that everybody wants.”

“Noe Valley is a favorite neighborhood for techies because it’s so close to 101 and 280,” said Tim Gullicksen, an agent with Zephyr Real Estate. “It’s a pain to live on the north side of San Francisco because they have to get all the way through town to get to the freeways.”

Tech firms’ buses a plus

The private bus routes sponsored by tech firms are a draw, said Zephyr agent Danielle Lazier. “We see a lot of first-time buyers from tech companies who still want to have a city lifestyle; they don’t want to live in the suburbs, but they work down south. What I notice is when people from Google, Apple, Yahoo and Genentech come in for a first meeting, we literally draw a line in the city because of the commute. Noe Valley is at the top of the list, then Bernal, Mission, Dolores, Cole Valley.”

The numbers tell the story. The median sales price in San Francisco has tumbled to $653,000, down 22 percent from its 2007 peak of $840,000, according to real estate information service Dataquick. That’s a far less dramatic slide than most other California cities. But in ZIP code 94114, which includes Noe Valley and the Castro, the median sales price for single-family homes now stands at $1.332 million, only 5 percent below its 2007 peak of $1.406 million. The median condo price is $820,000, down 8.5 percent from its 2007 peak of $896,000.

“It’s not completely bulletproof, but it’s more stable than other areas,” Lazier said. “Not everything sells over asking price the way it used to.”

Noe isn’t the only San Francisco neighborhood whose cachet has insulated it from the real estate downturn. ZIP codes 94117 (Haight-Ashbury/Cole Valley) and 94123 (Marina/Cow Hollow), for instance, have seen even less pricing impact.

Location, location, location

“Noe Valley has several things going for it,” said Jed Kolko, chief economist at real estate site Trulia.com. “Being closer to the Silicon Valley commute than other desirable parts of the city is a big plus. It’s also convenient to downtown. And it’s a neighborhood where there’s not a lot of new construction to relieve price pressure as more people go after pretty much the same number of homes.”

Brendan Collins, owner of Collins Construction, buys “fixer” houses, remodels and expands them, and then sells them. Noe Valley, where the older Victorians and Edwardians are modest in size because they were built for working-class families, is particularly fertile ground because it is such a desirable neighborhood for families, he said.

Vaishnavi Bodanapu, who is creating a social enterprise around food, and her husband, Sundeep Peechu, a venture capitalist in Palo Alto, are hunting for a two- or three-bedroom house in Noe Valley, where they hope to start a family.

“If you’re working in the South Bay, it is one of the best spots to be in the city, other than SoMa, which doesn’t have the same neighborhood feel,” she said.

“I certainly think it’s a little more expensive than it should be,” she said. “But Noe has its own charm. You get more for your money in Bernal Heights, but Noe feels like more part of the city.”

A dearth of for-sale properties means they haven’t made an offer yet. According to Realtor.com, ZIP code 94114 had 36 single-family homes for sale in January, half the number of listings a year earlier.

“There are lots of people in the market to buy, but there’s not a whole lot of inventory,” Bodanapu said.

Pete Brannigan, an agent with Brown & Co. Real Estate, said more than 100 people streamed through a recent open house. “It was a good price point for the neighborhood, just under a million dollars, meaning it was a, quote-unquote, starter home for Noe,” he said.

Many longtime residents say the neighborhood has maintained its character throughout the influx of new inhabitants.

The current tech-powered surge of house hunters is nothing new, said Smith, the Noe Valley Voice editor. She’s seen similar dynamics several times before.

“I moved here in the wave in the 1970s when lots of young people came here from Haight-Ashbury. Once they started meeting and having kids, they spilled into Noe Valley,” she said. “About 10 years later, as the tech industry boom was just starting, people who worked in Silicon Valley wanted to live here. The (private corporate) buses definitely created another wave. Now there are new businesses that are accelerating people’s desires to live here. We’ve been seeing higher demand, and rents and home prices going up.”

A sense of community

“There has always been a really big sense of community here, and there still is,” said Carol Yenne, owner of Small Frys, a children’s store on 24th Street – “downtown Noe Valley.” She and her husband have lived in Noe Valley for 36 years. Their two grown daughters now live in the neighborhood with their own families.

“There aren’t fancy cars or huge McMansions here the way there are in places like Menlo Park, where people tear down houses and build ones three times bigger,” Yenne said. “Here they might gut the interior and build an addition on the back, but there isn’t the kind of ostentatiousness that you see in other areas (touched by) the technology boom. When I meet people on the street here, I don’t know if they’re a fireman or a Facebook millionaire; they all look the same.”

While prices continue to climb, it helps to remember that affordability is always relative, she said.

“When we bought our (Noe Valley) house in 1975, it cost nothing compared to nowadays,” Yenne said. “But my mother back in Montana cried because we could have bought 10 acres and a ranch house there for the same price, and here we got a 25-foot-by-100-foot lot with an old, crummy house.”

I enjoy walking through Russian Hill on my way to North Beach and admire the architecture of the fine homes you see along the way with restaurants, shops and picturesque streets of views to the Bay.

” The neighborhood got its name when gold rushers found seven Cyrillic-inscribed gravestones at the top of the hill. Consensus on the identity of the Russian men buried there — they were reputed to be anything from sailors to fur trappers — was never reached, the gravestones disappeared in the late 1800s and the Russian influence has long since dissipated”. *

I enjoy selling homes in Russian Hill with loads of charm and history in this picturesque district. It’s one of the most desireable view neighborhoods in San Francisco!

What’s It Like in the Marina?
San Francisco’s Marina District offers flat land for jogging and water for surfing and Pacific Heights hills not a far hike. It’s a location where the singles scene is hopping on Friday and Saturday nights, with lots of good energy. Union is arguably the best street in the city to window-shop the hours away on a sunny Saturday afternoon and, a few blocks down, Chestnut has an incredible variety of high-quality restaurants catering to every palate.

A short walk to the Presidio where Lucas Films is located with many other facilities to enjoy and the YMCA. The North Side of San Francisco is a relocation destination for young adults where a social atmosphere on Chestnut street can be found.

Specializing in the Marina…housing is not always found through Craigslist…its all about networking. Contact: www.SilvanaMessing.com